The throne is vacant in Lebanon

On September 1, 1982, a secret meeting took place in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya. Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin had invited Lebanon's newly elected 34-year-old president, Bashir Gemayel, to discuss support for Israel's invasion of Lebanon, which had begun on June 6.

At that time, Gemayel was leading a strong military front (Kuwatu'l-Lubnaniyye) during the ongoing Civil War and opposed the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Syria's presence in Lebanon, identifying as a Maronite Christian. He had previously established contact with Israel; in fact, then-Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon had warned him of the impending invasion and asked for his help in alerting the PLO. Gemayel had conveyed to the PLO that "Israel will invade Lebanon to uproot you from Beirut. Leave beforehand to prevent the invasion," but he received no clear response.

Despite the close communication between the parties, it was impossible for Gemayel to openly support what Begin was demanding. Begin was pressuring him to back the invasion while also seeking a peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon. Egypt had taken this step in 1979, but Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated two years later. Remembering Sadat’s fate, Gemayel declined Begin’s request, and the meeting ended. On September 12, Ariel Sharon attempted once more, meeting Gemayel privately in Lebanon, but received the same response. Gemayel planned to first drive the Syrian army out of Lebanon and then involve the U.S. to force Israel to withdraw.

On September 14, 1982, at 4:10 PM, Bashir Gemayel and 26 others were killed in a bombing while they were holding a meeting in their party headquarters in the Ashrafieh district of Beirut. The attacker, a Maronite Christian named Habib Chartouni, was a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. After serving a few years in prison, he escaped in 1990 and settled in Syria, where he is believed to still reside.

Another significant assassination during the Civil War occurred on May 16, 1989, when Sheikh Hasan Khalid, a leading figure of the Sunni front and the Mufti of Lebanon, was killed. Khalid, who also headed the Islamic Coalition comprising former prime ministers, ministers, parliamentarians, opinion leaders, and scholars, opposed the Syrian army's presence in Lebanon, similar to Gemayel. The assassination in downtown Beirut, carried out with 136 kilograms of explosives, resulted in the deaths of Sheikh Hasan and 21 others. As usual, Syrian intelligence was the prime suspect in the incident.

The Lebanese Civil War ended with the signing of the Taif Agreement in 1990, but political assassinations continued in the country. One of the most significant figures in Lebanon's recent history was Rafik Hariri, who was killed on February 14, 2005. Following Sheikh Hasan Khalid, Hariri was another irreplaceable loss for Lebanese Sunnis.

The Shia front in Lebanon also suffered significant losses, especially after the Civil War. Hezbollah's second secretary-general Abbas Musawi was killed in 1992, and the third secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed by Israel in 2024.

Today, Israel is once again attacking Lebanon, a country it occupied for 18 years from 1982 to 2000 before finally withdrawing. It is clear that, at the end of this process, Israel will gain nothing and will have to turn inward, facing numerous crises much deeper than before.

In the current Middle Eastern landscape, as minority communities and various religious groups continue to fight for their survival, the place of the "King" on the chessboard remains vacant. The King, representing the Sunni majority from every perspective, is absent. The roles of Sunnis in influencing the ongoing situation, with their populations, organizations, religious communities, and even governments, are not commensurate with their presence on the ground. Historical periods where Sunnis were this fragmented, disconnected, headless, and leaderless are exceedingly rare. This existential crisis, threatening the future of our region from every angle, remains a crucial topic worthy of constant reflection.